You all know I’ve been advocating restoration of the passenger rail service in Rockford for many years. I’ve been skeptical that it would ever happen. Whenever someone has asked Wally Haas or me when the train is coming, we’ve always given the same answer: “It’s five years away.”

So of course I was skeptical when I went to Gov. Pat Quinn’s news conference Thursday in Davis Park. I knew he would announce a new route for the train on the Union Pacific line instead of the Canadian National line. The CN was impossible to negotiate with; the governor said the Montreal-based rail giant wanted “way too much money” for the state to afford.

What I didn’t know was that he would bring money. Lots of it.

My skepticism vanished when Quinn appeared with Union Pacific representatives led by Lance Fritz, the railroad’s new president.

The governor said he’s committed $223 million in capital funds to the project and that work to improve the tracks and install signals will start “this spring and summer.”

Is this finally, at long last, real? I say yes, because the president of the largest railroad in the U.S. doesn’t show up in your town to speculate. There’s got to be a done deal, and Fritz is not a politician looking for votes. He’s a businessman.

Quinn’s Republican opponent, Bruce Rauner, tried to pour cold water on the news. His campaign said: “Pat Quinn held the exact same press conference four years ago, and four years later this train line is just another broken promise to the people of Rockford.”

No, that’s not true.

Quinn deserves the credit for sticking with this project in the face of a railroad that seemed determined to keep passenger trains off its track through northern Illinois.

He made service to Rockford a top priority and followed through, even though it took much longer than envisioned.

Is it also good politics? You bet. It’s good for Rockford, Belvidere, Huntley — Elgin, too.

Rauner needs to say whether he supports passenger rail in Illinois, including the train to Rockford. Illinois and 18 other states support passenger rail service. Ridership on state-backed trains is at record levels — 2.2 million riders last year.

UP already has a big presence in northern Illinois; one of its main lines goes through Rochelle, where local leaders persuaded the railroad about 10 years ago to build an intermodal hub, Global III. But the UP’s branch line to Rockford has been little-used past Belvidere’s Fiat-Chrysler factory for years. The first line into the city in 1852, the year Rockford was incorporated, sees few freight trains now, and the line west of town was torn out more than 30 years ago.

Page 2 of 2 - So this project is a good deal for UP because the railroad gets a smooth track capable of 79 mph and modern signaling, which it hopes will lead to more freight traffic.

Will the train will be successful?

Times have changed in the 33 years since Amtrak’s Black Hawk made its last run. Traffic on Interstate 90 has gotten worse, and widening a road always leads to more congestion. Chicago parking rates are through the roof, so it’s better to take public transport to get there. With Wi-Fi, trains provide a relaxing working environment.

Now, here’s some friendly advice:

Having the old station at Seventh Street and Sixth Avenue serve as an interim station could inhibit ridership growth unless there’s adequate parking in a high-fenced, well-lighted lot and a security guard present when the train comes and goes.

Having one train a day at first limits riders’ choices. Two trains are promised in 2016. Three or more would provide the flexibility people want.

When the permanent station is constructed downtown, maybe on Cedar Street across from the U.S. courthouse, that, too must have adequate, secure and well-lighted parking.

Still, those of us who were promoting The Black Hawk in the 1970s discovered that the biggest problem was convincing people who wanted to go to Chicago to drive west to get the station. Most Black Hawk riders were east-siders who were not keen on driving several miles to downtown.

The solution would have been to build a park-and-ride station between South Alpine and South Mulford roads. That’s still good advice.

Finally, people to the west of Rockford, who hoped that they, too, would see the train in their communities, are temporarily out of luck. It’s not Quinn’s fault. Extending the train to Freeport, Galena and Dubuque, Iowa, would have to be agreed to by the recalcitrant CN, because it owns the only tracks west of Rockford through northwest Illinois.